Bonds’ Steroid Use Exposed

A few links from the afternoon:

Sports Illustrated has an explosive excerpt from the new book Game of Shadows which chronicles that Barry Bonds did use steroids and a “wide array of performance-enhancing drugs” (Sorry, Bob Halloran). This will likely dominate the airwaves in the coming days. There is some truly riveting stuff in here.

Rob Bradford catches up with former Red Sox shortstop Edgar Renteria, who talks about his lone season in Boston and the struggles he had at Fenway Park. Chris Snow, in the Globe Extra Bases blog, has John Flaherty announcing his retirement today at Red Sox spring training. Bill Ballou in the Worcester Telegram &amp; Gazette has a look at Josh Beckett’s rocky first outing with the Red Sox. Sean McAdam says that doing nothing in regards to Manny Ramirez and David Wells was actually the right course for the Red Sox. Garry Brown notes that pitching depth will not be a problem for the Red Sox this season. Tom King in the Nashua Telegraph reports that Oil Can Boyd could be joining the Nashua Pride this season.

Chad Finn has nine more spring training thoughts. Deadspin has Four Tiny Tidbits on the Red Sox. Ballou’s notebook looks at Dustan Mohr getting an early jump on the backup outfielder position with his home run yesterday. He also catches up with Jimy Williams, now working for the Devil Rays. McAdam’s notebook has more on Beckett’s first start of the spring.

Eric McHugh talks to the always-available Pete Kendall about the NFL labor talks. Tom E Curran has a brief report on the NFL owners getting set to vote on the labor deal. Len Pasquarelli of ESPN.com says that the chances of the deal making it through the owners vote successfully is “tenuous”. Don Banks of CNNSI believes that if the deal gets done, it could be Paul Tagliabue’s swan song.

Mike Loftus says that the Bruins have plenty of challenges facing them these days. Joe McDonald looks at the injury to Sergei Samsonov.